Over the next week I get two more groups of delvers. One group I'm not even sure can technically be called delvers. Their just kids maybe 6 or 7 definitely not old enough to make the trip to me by themselves. I know from my past life that the park is just outside the main part of town, but that's still a long way to travel when there are actual monsters in the world now. Judging by their conversation someone had apparently sent them here specifically to collect the mushrooms near the entrance. I try to stay impartial, but the thing is, however sent them here new about the mushrooms which means they must have also known about the hostile mobs. Now yes I did leave the mushrooms near the front specifically for people to take without fighting but whoever sent these kids couldn't have known that. It's almost like they where hoping the kids wouldn't make it back and It 's that thought that makes me a little angry. Ok, maybe it makes me more than just a little angry.
The other group was an elderly couple. Though they were old they were far from feeble. It seems that they had heard about an abandoned mine and came to take a look. This area isn't known for their mining operations so they were apparently curious to see what this mine produced. They made it all the way to the first chest before being forced back. They may not be feeble but there is still only two of them. On a side note I did not realize a walking cane could be that lethal. They must have had quite the life when they were younger to be that skilled at fighting. They did stop to harvest the mushrooms as well which was nice and between the two groups I got 73 DP, though most of that was from the mushrooms and the chest.
Between delvers I spend my time staring out at the world which is slowly becoming one I don't recognize. The tranquil woods surrounding the park has become a proper forest I can't see it clearly from where I am, but I'm pretty sure it either has already started to or will soon start to reclaim the park in it's entirety. It's while I'm looking out at the world wondering what will become of humanity that I catch sight of Eric's party making their way through the forest. They're a bit earlier than usual, by several days. Not that I'm complaining because I do have plans that require DP.
This time they managed to clear all five treasure chests. They now look like a proper party. Almost nothing remains of the patchwork gear they first entered with. At one point I thought they were going to fight the boss. They started making their way towards it but changed their mind about three and a half meters shy of my bosses ambush range. I don't know why they stopped because they would need a perception level of at least five to even sense my spider queen much less see or hear it. Still they did clear every chest and get the mushrooms. It doesn't give near the DP it once did do to them being an average of level 3 but it was still enough to let me upgrade the third loot node to level 2. Two more to upgrade before I start upgrading loot nodes 5, 4, and 3 to level 3. The plan is to have them go in order from level 1 near the entrance to level 5 near the boss.
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This time Eric's party is only gone about three days before returning. Once again they do a full clear of the entire first floor aside from the boss. Which isn't hard because the spawners have a fixed spawn rate of once every five minutes or 12 an hour. Not to mention the time it takes them to actually get where they need to be. There is an easy fix of course, all I would need to do is add more spawners. This will postpone my plans for the first floor a bit but I can't have my first floor largely undefended either. A spawn rate of 288 per day seemed like a lot, especially with three spawners each putting out that many. The problem is I'm starting to have people coming in ever day or every other day. So what happens when they start coming in before the last group has even finished?
It seems some future proofing is necessary. The spawners will automatically stop spawning new mobs once there area reaches a certain saturation level so It's not like I have to worry about the area being to tough all of a sudden. Granted most only reach the first chest if that far, that does not however means that's as far as they will ever reach. All total it costs me 100DP to place down another rat, snake, and spider spawner, as well as upgrade them to the appropriate level. I can only hope that's enough because after I placed the second spider spawner I got a notification.
Spawner limit for floor 1 reached.
Well, I guess that means I can't place any ant or bat spawners on the first floor, not that I was planning to anyway. It also means that the nodes probably have a limit as well. I'm not sure what it is, but if there is one it's definitely more than the spawner limit. The reason I say that is because I already have seven nodes on the first floor, which is already one more than the spawner limit. I still want to add iron and coal nodes at some point. So that means I have to make sure they are the next nodes I add just in case. First though, I want to get the loot nodes upgraded. To do that it's going to cost me 1,800DP total.
Fortunately, Eric's party arrives after another three days. I'm honestly starting to think that they are coming here specifically to grind levels. I mean they could be coming here for the chests as well. I highly doubt that however. Mainly because they don't turn around and leave as soon as they get the last chest. Not that I mind, the more they delve the more DP I get. The fact that they also get stronger is just a happy coincidence. A mutually beneficial arrangement if you will. That said if they keep delving at this rate they will reach level 4 by the end of next month.
